Thursday, October 29, 2009

Some of our goblin gourds from the garden. Some of the mums I have in bloom year after year. This is probably the first year I was on-time with pinching them of mid summer so they are not all falling over. Bright yellow orange:Red:Rust orange:newly purchased white, not even planted yet:Perennial ornamental cabbage & kale:I cannot claim ownership of this cute pumpkin hay bale display but it is one of two on a property I pass most every day. Great!

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

The first light frost of the season took with it the coleus, zinnia and cosmos; par for the course. The leaves of the Japanese red bark acer maple are changing color.

It also left many flower buds that were getting ready to open, like this pink Abraham Darby rose, frozen in time. The deep red gladiolus with the yellow center is continuing its bloom.

So yes, all of the tropicals in their containers are living in the garage right now. We handtrucked them in over the past weekend. I will bring some into the house this year once I decide how I will treat the soil to get rid of any potential bug babies.

Sunday, October 4, 2009

Continuing around the side gardens to the front of the house, I spy a white oleander in a container that I brought home from a nursery while vacationing in the Outer Banks this summer. To me, it is totally Ocracoke!my bougainvillea is totally Texas to me:

I trained it up last summer's obelisk purchase from "The Pottery" in Williamsburg late in the season. Over the winter, I'll prune it up and do a better job but right now it is in full bloom so I'd just as soon leave well enough alone.

a deep purple morning glory that looks like it has a votive candle burning within. I never tire of the perfectly colored and magnificently fragranced pink Abraham Darby rose.

and a very close second with this Livin' Easy apricot orange peach floribunda HARwelcome rose for the same reasons, color and fragrance:

one of the many annual red trumpet vines I plant from seed all around the property for the hummingbirds:

up close and personal:

and then to the west side of the house for the "What is this picture of" segment of the post. I was surfing garden bloggers the other day and stumbled upon a garden ring of this sort where everyone posts pictures for others to guess on. When I find it again, I'll link this to it.

As all gardeners and photographers know, the morning is such a beautiful time of day to photograph in the garden. I got a few shots around the pool gardens and then the battery pack told me it was hungry. Hmmm...

The cool weather is bringing some colors alive that were scorched in the heat of the summer.Like the small clump of dahlias:This red and white bicolor variety of salvia microphylla hot lips that I put in this year:reminded me of a candy cane stripe, the hummingbirds love the salvia:The blue plumbago on its second flush of blooms:The everblooming Gaura whirling butterfly:My everblooming alstroemeria:up close:A delicate pink annual geranium: and its red neighbor:A few varieties of the perennial back eyed susan rudbeckia big:and small:And the orange canna lily dew covered and backlit by the morning sun:

Check out the ears on this one ;-)Looking at my canna lily and peruvian lily (alstroemeria), I am realizing why I am not a daylily nut. They bloom for such a short time and my lilies bloom 3 - 4 seasons. The alstroemeria can bloom all winter in the house but I do tend to cut them down to start fresh. I have 2 containers full and they need to be divided again so next year I'll have 4. I want to find someone to trade colors with. I would love a yellow variety next. I need to remember where I got these bulbs from. It was quite a few years back now.

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Playing with Templates...

And yes... I spent some time playing around with some of the new template designs and really bolloxed things up. Sorry. I'll get back to it another time and see what I can do to make it LESS busy!! I just try to use my blog as a place for me to find what I need as well. Maybe I need to separate the two...